When I look back on my high school years, I miss them dearly. I miss wearing a uniform every day. I miss seeing my friends between classes. I miss my lunchtime routine, I miss the sports teams I played on and the school newspaper I wrote for. It’s overwhelming to remember that, even though I felt differently at the time, those four years were fairly simple and worry-free.

Today, however, as I sit outside the Alumni Memorial Union and write this column, I am beginning to realize that all the things I missed about high school, I found again in college, just in slightly different forms. And, as I prepare to graduate in a little over two weeks, I have already begun to miss them, too.

I will miss wearing yoga pants and T-shirts instead of “real” clothes every day. I will miss seeing my friends in and between classes. I will miss my lunchtime routine (which, at this point, consists of begging my underclassmen friends for meal swipes). I will miss my sorority – the Greek week teams I played on and the school newspaper I wrote for. I will miss the house that I’ve lived in for the past two years, its red couches and spotty Internet. I will miss late nights at friends’ apartments, in the library, at campus bars and on midnight drives to the lake.

When I set foot on this campus four years ago, I could never have imagined how much of a home it would become for me. This university has helped me become a confident and self-sufficient young woman. I do not even know how to begin to express the gratitude and love I feel and know I always will.

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Caroline Campbell is a senior in the College of Communication with a major in journalism and a minor in history. Email her [email protected].